Spirituality of Pilgrimage

Spirituality of Pilgrimage

Class Reading: Victor and Edith Turner/Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture

November 22, 2015

Pilgrimage is a form of embodied devotion and exteriorized spirituality. The phenomena of pilgrimage became most prevalent in Medieval Europe. Seekers would venture out on their salvific journey, most often, to a holy site in hopes of having their hearts revived and lifestyles reformed. A pilgrim site is a place where miracles are believed to happen; where the supernatural touches the natural and the extraordinary spills over into the ordinary. As Turner puts it, “one motive for going on pilgrimage is the feeling that a saint’s shrine has a sort of ‘hot line’ to the Almighty.”(16) For some, pilgrimage was a form of penance that entailed vows of repentance to God. The physical pain and affliction of the journey offered a way of punishing and pruning the individual’s soul from sinful habits. Moreover, pilgrimage offered an escape from the hierarchy and status that constitutes human society. On the pilgrimage trail, the walls of culture, race, gender, and politics fall down and individuals are opened up to communitas, the spontaneous encounter of human beings.